Naturally Increase Your IQ: The Master Key of Intelligence
Believe it or not, you can significantly increase your IQ with simple changes in your perspective and daily routine.
What You Will Learn
How to shift your perspective to gain a better understanding of what IQ is, how it works, and what you can do to increase it.
How to “Game” IQ tests and improve your scores, which translates to real increases in cognitive ability that will help you to better solve real-world problems.
The fundamentals of increasing IQ: From inhibitors of IQ, such as fear, ego and closed-mindedness to the enhancers, such as creativity, play, courage and open-mindedness.
How nutrition and lifestyle play a significant role in intelligence, and how malnutrition and bad habits can decrease your cognitive function and abilities.
The misconceptions about intelligence from the faulty Western-Cartesian framework that forms the basis of IQ and IQ testing.
A new and mind expanding way of thinking about intelligence, incorporating indigenous cultures, alchemy, hermeticism, occult and esoteric philosophies and techniques.
Several enjoyable exercises and meditations that will literally increase your IQ over time.
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Nose Breather
As always, I can’t talk about anything regarding the body or mind without talking about the importance of correct breathing. It’s easy to get into bad breathing habits, in fact, most of us do unless we are actively engaging with the art of the breath. Increased stress and over-stimulation go hand-in-hand with shallow breathing through the mouth. It appears to be a direct effect of modern life and the disconnection from tried and true wisdoms of the ancients and their yogic practices.
Breathing is significantly important for mental cognition because oxygen is a primary and pertinent for the general function and health of the brain. More oxygen and supplementary nutrients brought in by breathing through the nose, means more cognitive power and a healthier brain. In addition, full, deep breaths allow you to get into more natural brainwave states that are conducive to comprehension, memory and assimilation of information. Maybe that’s why they call them mouth breathers…
Considering I have an entire guidebook on correct breathing that can be found in the Quick References & Guidebooks section of my Substack, I will only give a brief overview of correct breathing here, and refer you to this great, easy to read resource for sustained correct breathing.
Breathing through the nose and out of the mouth start taking full deep breaths, keeping in mind that the breath comes from all the way down in the belly.
Activating your stomach muscles, releasing them outward as you draw in the breath.
The opening and expanding of your stomach will allow your diaphragm to relax and descend downward. The diaphragm is the muscle responsible for opening your lungs fully.
The lungs should not be thought of as the primary mechanic of breathing. Instead, your lungs should be a passive mechanism that is filled with the air as a result of your activation of the stomach muscles.
What is an Intelligence Quotient (IQ)?
There is a common misconception about IQ: The idea that it is a life sentence. That the IQ you are born with is the one you are stuck with. This is simply not the case. You have a “base intelligence” you are born with, but even that is misleading, because your intelligence is increasing whenever you’re challenged by new concepts, learn a new skill and much more.
Some people are born with a knack for what is called Spatial Awareness, Meaning Making, Comprehension, and Computational skills. Though anyone can get better at any of these, any time.
It’s important to reiterate that these qualities of intelligence improve over time and can be intentionally increased through practice. They are also dependent upon many other variables, including level of schooling and personality traits such as “Openness.” Let’s discuss the foundational principles of the “Standard Model” of IQ, and how they don’t provide a comprehensive picture of intelligence.
Spatial Awareness: The ability to understand the relationship between your body, the objects around you, and how to move through your environment without bumping into things. It's also known as spatial perception.
Spatial awareness is important for many things, including:
Navigation: Being able to read maps, walk through narrow spaces, and avoid bumping into things
Social settings: Understanding how to interact with people around you
Conventional Studies: Mathematics, especially geometry and algebraic disciplines. Spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Various physical sciences and more.
Definition Provided by Google Labs
Meaning Making: The process of interpreting and making sense of the world around us, including events, situations, and people. It's a key part of learning and is often used in psychology, counseling, and education.
Learning: Interpreting and understanding information and experiences by using your previous knowledge and cognitive resources.
Self Awareness in Relationship to the Environment: Making sense of life events, relationships, and the self.
Psychology and Psychotherapy: Attributing reasonable meaning to experiences like death or loss. Being able to transform perspectives and personal philosophies to overcome difficult situations and derive purposeful ways forward.
Spirituality: Searching for life purpose, inner wisdom, and metaphysical meaning in your life that is conducive to their growth and doesn’t create delusional eschatology.
Definition Provided by Google Labs
Gaming IQ Tests: Studying for Intelligence
One of the easiest-to-understand proofs of what I am claiming is the IQ test itself. Did you know that you can improve your scores on these tests by studying them? If you take an IQ test over and over again, learning from your mistakes each time, your scores will improve. Does that mean your IQ has increased? Well, that’s what the tests would say!
The decades of research, and the culmination of that research into the “Standard Progressive Matrices”, created by the father of the standard IQ test, would say yes, you just increased your IQ. But if we can essentially “Game” or “Hack” the test, what does it say about that test, and what does is say about IQ overall?
IQ is a measure of specific metrics that are related to the overall challenges one faces in life that require Cognitive Ability.
Cognitive Ability: The mental capacity to perform and understand a range of tasks, both simple and complex. It's also known as cognitive intelligence or cognitive thinking.
Cognitive Abilities Include: Reading, thinking, learning, paying attention, reasoning, remembering, recognizing patterns, analyzing problems, and maintaining concentration.
Cognitive Abilities Allow: People to process information, adapt to new situations, and derive meaning from their experiences.
The word "cognitive" comes from the Medieval Latin word cognitīvus, which means "concerned with knowing"
Definition provided by Google Labs
Let’s take a minute to examine a common question from an IQ test to give you a better idea of what I’m saying here. In an IQ test, we get simplified reconstructions of real-world problems with questions that involve geometric patterns, number series and word problems. Below is an example of one of these questions.
If you’ve never taken an IQ test, or are simply not trained or experienced with spatial and cognitive ability, this may seem like a difficult problem to solve. Though, by simply working with this object and the folding of it in your mind, you can improve your ability to answers these questions and do so quicker.
In this example, your first step should be to fold the object into a three-dimensional box in your mind. Let’s start by focusing on the smiley face, as it is the most visually stimulating. You will notice that the folding puts the star side below the smiley face. Meaning that answers #1 and #3 are incorrect. The star is the next-best side to work with because it will help to eliminate all but one of the possible answers. Taking time to fold the image in your mind again, you can see that the dot is on the opposite side of the star, and therefore, answer #2 is also incorrect, leaving answer #4 as the only possible solution. You can verify this by checking the cube in your mind again and relating each side to another as a proof.
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Practice Makes Perfect
If you weren’t familiar with this question before, you have already increased your likelihood of getting this answer correct in a shorter period of time by reading the small paragraph above. Continuing to practice mental imaging in your spare time by using test questions will strengthen this mental muscle. It will get easier and easier to visualize these objects and find the correct answer.
Another way you can improve this ability is by recreating the above object on a piece of paper, cutting it out and performing the exercises. You can color-code the sides with how they will match when they are folded, creating a system of understanding that will again translate to you doing better on the questions.
Technically, you have “increased your IQ.” The short tutorial above has equipped you with a skill to solve these problems quicker and with a higher percentage of accuracy. This can be done with all the different types of questions on an IQ test. In addition, these mental exercises improve multiple areas of cognitive ability that translate into your regular life. Being able to visualize objects and scenarios, without actually seeing or experiencing them, allows you to model potential future outcomes, giving you an “edge” in your decision-making and how it will affect, and be effected by, the future.
Building Cognitive Tools: Consider this in the context of general mathematical skill. When you first learned multiplication, you may remember having to close your eyes and think very hard about a simple problem like 3x3. Another technique you might have used was counting three sets of three on your fingers.
But once you practiced your multiplication tables long enough, you were able to recall these answers from memory. Now take two people in their thirties, one who has just started learning multiplication and one who has memorized their tables. As you observe both of them solving the problem, it would appear as if one was more intelligent than the other. Except it wasn’t a matter of intelligence, but of time spent practicing and memorization.
But beyond appearances, the fundamental understanding of your base multiplication tables allows you to access higher mathematics like algebra, where you often have to perform several multiplication processes along with other complex computation. Having the preexisting knowledge allows you to solve the overall problem quicker and more accurately. But again, this was not some fundamental marker of the IQ of the person, but simply the training and application of oneself to learning a thing.
It becomes even more profound when a person develops shortcuts and hacks to math problems. For instance, when dealing with squares (1x1, 2x2, 3x3, etc.), understanding that the product of a square is equal to the product of the previous square with the two base numbers added to it creates a new cognitive tool for higher level processing of the problem. An example of this would be: 4x4=(3x3)+3+4=16.
When dealing with larger squares such as 21x21, you can quickly get the answer by taking an easy square such as 20x20=400 and add 20+21 to it! 441. There are 100s if not 1000s of these little hacks that provide you with a deeper understanding of the fundamental nature of numbers and their relationship to computational functions. All of which, again, increase your efficiency and effectiveness with problem solving. Is this an increase in IQ or simply a desire and passion to learn and the ability to memorize new concepts?
Crystal vs. Liquid Intelligence
What I’ve just demonstrated is how increasing your Crystalized Intelligence proportionately increases your liquid or Fluid Intelligence. The above example is not only verifiable in and of itself; the science supports it. Crystal intelligence deals with the parts of the brain that store information. Essentially, the access and use of knowledge. Liquid intelligence deals with the parts of your brain that perform reasoning processes to solve problems in real time. IQ tests are, by-and-large, testing your fluid intelligence.
Crystallized Intelligence: is the ability to use knowledge gained from experience to make decisions and solve problems. It's also known as "book smarts".
Crystallized Intelligence is one of two factors that make up general intelligence, along with fluid intelligence. Crystallized intelligence is characterized by:
Acquired knowledge: Information learned through education and culture, such as facts, skills, and vocabulary.
Increases in age: Crystallized intelligence tends to increase as people age and gain more knowledge through experience. It usually peaks in middle age and declines later in life due to extenuating circumstances of biology.
Examples: Examples of crystallized intelligence include recalling historical events, remembering geographical locations, and reciting a poem.
Definition Provided by Google Labs
Fluid Intelligence: is the ability to think logically and solve problems without relying solely on prior knowledge or experience. It's a cognitive ability that allows people to think abstractly and flexibly, and to identify patterns and relationships in new situations.
Examples of Fluid Intelligence: Solving puzzles, Developing strategies to solve problems, and playing an instrument without prior training.
Fluid intelligence is different from crystallized intelligence, which is the ability to use knowledge and experience that has already been acquired. Crystallized intelligence is involved in tasks like crossword puzzles and scrabble.
Definition Provided by Google Labs
Fluid intelligence essentially boils down to the accuracy and speed at which you can solve problems. By building and improving upon the foundations of your crystalized intelligence, you develop the muscle memory that can perform better under pressure and improve that accuracy and speed in solving “liquid intelligence” problems. Expanding your library of data, understanding various systems, creating and discovering mental shortcuts (life-hacks) and increasing your general knowledge of the world are all ways in which increased crystalized intelligence contributes to increased cognitive ability.
The more preexisting knowledge you have, the more you can recognize patterns and problem-solve. From this analysis, we can reasonably conclude that learning has a positive correlation to increased IQ. Let us examine then, the fundamentals of efficient learning which directly impact intelligence. But before we move on to the enhancers and inhibitors of learning, let’s discuss a threshold of developing your crystal intelligence that can open a very special door to understanding our reality. It is often referred to as “The Master Key” of wisdom.
As Above, So Below: The Art and Science of Game Theory
Understanding the fundamental building blocks of reality and how they interact with each other is the essential meaning behind, “As Above So Below.” By gaining an understanding of all systems at various levels, you can start to understand the “Divine Mechanics” of the overall “Game” of reality.
Why do galaxies take on the same shape as a developing fetus in the womb? As Above, So Below. Why do we name their highway systems “arterials” and why do they take on the same form and function of the arteries in our body? As Above, So Below. The similarities between the structure of the atoms and the heavenly bodies? As Above, So Below. Why does the Fibonacci sequence express itself at all levels of reality, from fern plants to mighty redwoods, and sea shells to vast ocean currents? As Above, So Below. The divine mystery of creation is hidden within all organized matter, energy and the systems they are a part of.
Through careful and dedicated observation, a traveler of wisdom can catch their sails on this ever-blowing wind, that makes manifest all things. Once they know this secret, all things can be revealed. This will in turn, allow them to access universal cognitive tools of comprehension and problem solving that act as a Swiss-Army knife of reasoning. What the sages simply call, Wisdom. More on this later.
Increasing IQ: Inhibitors and Enhancers
There are several qualities of character that lend themselves to increased cognitive function via their ability to improve the rate and quality of gaining crystalized intelligence. Similarly, there are character traits that do the opposite and stunt your ability to understand the world you live in. Working to eliminate the “inhibitors” and cultivate the “enhancers”, will open up doors inside your mind and in the outside world that will give you access to unfathomable opportunities in cognition. Let us examine some of the most prominent of these character traits.
Inhibitors
Suppose you have the opportunity to learn a new skill, one that could provide a measurable increase on an IQ test or teach you a new Cognitive Tool that is more effective at deconstructing a problem in real life. What sort of character traits might prevent you from learning this new skill? Think of all possible environments and scenarios where you might be learning.
Cognitive Tools: To clarify what I mean by a cognitive tool, think again about when you first started learning mathematics in school. When beginning your study of multiplication, you probably struggled to work out the simplest factors in your head. Though, through understanding the multiplication table and certain qualities of multiples (like the sum of the numbers multiplied by 9 always equaling 9), your ability to solve these problems became easier. These are cognitive tools or mental systems of problem solving. More advanced systems get you the answer faster, and so, allow you to solve more and more complex problems using less time and mental energy. If you were to apply these systems with ever-increasing effectiveness and efficiency, one might say you were becoming more intelligent.
Fear
This might be the primary blocker of learning and intelligence. You can’t learn what you fear. You can’t learn something new if you’re afraid to fail, afraid to embarrass yourself in front of others, or afraid to put yourself into a strange situation or environment where the lesson is found. Let’s say that you have an opportunity to learn a new language and culture as part of a “going-abroad” program, but your fear of traveling and living in a foreign place without your familiar support networks overcomes your desire to experience this new place. This choice not only robs you of learning the new language and understanding a new culture, but also impedes your ability to broaden your understanding of the world through learning new techniques and acquiring new knowledge.
Environmental Exercise #1: A Stranger in a Strange Land
Think about your local environment and the surrounding areas. Is there something new or different that you could try to experience
?a new situation or circumstance?Maybe it’s a hike or camping trip in a challenging environment with difficult terrain. Or a district in your city with its own local culture and language that is foreign to you.
Plan a day trip with only the supplies needed to preserve your health and well-being. If it’s camping, take an unfamiliar hike or try to make a fire from scratch. If it’s a cultural district, try to bridge the gap between a language barrier without a dictionary or translator on your phone.
Putting yourself in novel situations will activate new parts of the brain, develop psychological resiliency to stress, and produce feel-good hormones and neurochemicals triggered by having an exciting and novel experience.
Consider other possibilities for novel experiences, moving farther and farther out of your comfort zone and expertise, both geographically and mentally.
The ramifications of letting fear restrict you are far-reaching. For instance, learning a language like Arabic will activate parts of your brain that have never been stimulated before as a result of the unique syntactical and phonetic qualities compared to Latin and Germanic based languages. It is said that speaking a different language actually changes how you see the world in fundamental ways. Maybe the reason that Asian populations excel in math is because their language is ideogrammatic (Languages that use thousands of ideograms, or characters, to represent ideas and concepts) which lends itself to understanding symbols as part of larger concepts and processes, like numbers and equations.
The Importance of Psychological Resilience: In addition to increases in cognitive abilities, putting yourself into unfamiliar environments creates eustress, which, if overcome and put to good use, will increase what is called psychological resilience. Psychological resilience has many benefits. It can assist in solving problems under pressure and being able to handle stress better in general. Trauma is well-known to cause lasting psychological effects that are indistinguishable from brain damage. Having fear in stressful situations increases the likelihood that you will be overwhelmed by stress which can lead to psychological trauma. Building psychological resilience has been proven to mitigate that harm significantly.
Increased psychological resilience→ Decrease chance of psychological trauma→ Increased opportunity for cognitive improvement.
Ego
The ego is your worst enemy in pursuit of personal growth. Ego is the thing which causes you jealousy for a co-worker who has gotten the same work done in half the time as you did. Ego is also the thing that prevents you from asking your co-worker “How do you do it?” This simple question, asked in humility, can give you vast opportunities to learn new techniques and cognitive tools to get your work done quicker. When you can get the work done quicker, you use less energy. With more energy left over, you can spend time studying more work hacks, now that you have been inspired by your colleague.
I imagine you’re starting to see how these qualities of character are way more influential on your intelligence than some abstract metric of “IQ.” These personality traits are the actual things that either hold you back or propel you forward into what truly creates intelligence: EXPERIENCE.
Experiencing our environment is a requirement for learning. Learning is a requirement for increasing your crystalized intelligence. Increased crystalized intelligence leads to increased fluid intelligence.
It’s really that simple. It is only through your ability to openly and observantly experience and learn from your environment that you can be “smart” about anything. If a person were to spend the first 20 years of their life in an empty room with padded walls, they would come out of that room an “imbecile” by definition. Their IQ might be near 0 on any test. But there isn’t anything wrong with their brain outside of atrophy from non-use. Their brain, fundamentally, works perfectly fine. There’s just nothing there. So put something there! Put lots of stuff there. Take measured and reasonable chances. Let go of your fear of embarrassment and don’t be so prideful that you won’t study the master at work and admit you will always have more to learn.
Environmental Exercise #2: Studying the Master
Everyone is a master of something. Even the small child at play is a master of that play. No stress, absolutely engaged with their imagination, and having the time of their life. Don’t you miss being able to let loose? Is it because you “grew up and matured” that you don’t laugh hysterically, goof around and let go of your inhibitions? Or is it, Peter Pan, that you have forgotten? That you are no longer a master of play, an essential part of being alive that you should never grow out of?
Take some time to think about the various people in your life. A co-worker, a friend with a shared hobby, a husband or wife or even your children. What is something about them, their skills or outlook on life that you admire? What is something that they’re great at, that you might enjoy being great at too?
As you approach them for your lesson, imagine yourself as a new student on the first day of class. See them, no matter if they are an elder twice your age or a toddler half your size, as someone you look up to for wisdom.
Ask as many questions as they’ll answer. Watch them at work as you leave your pride at the door and enter completely into the mindset of the young fool, eager to learn.
An Example: It could be a friend who can throw a football much farther than you. Ask them about their technique. Show them how you throw it and ask what you might do to improve. Ask what contributing factors compliment their ability, such as a training video they watched or their overall nutrition that gives them more strength to throw. Watch them step-by-step in their own execution. Break down every micro-action. Breathing deeply and focusing on the present moment will help you to see more and more of the little moments that make up the whole.
Closed-Mindedness
Let’s say you are the devout follower of a religion. This religion teaches you that it is the correct religion and that all others are dangerous. It teaches you that the others must be converted in order to save their souls. Let us say that you have a friend who has something very special they can teach you about meditation; a technique that allows you to shift your mental state to a more relaxed one that allows for the brain to process information better and release tension and stress that lead to conditions such as Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD). But, because of your belief system, you refuse to learn a technique from someone else’s “religion” and lose an opportunity to use a tool that would increase your cognitive function.
Take this analogy to its extreme. A scientist who’s been a lifetime supporter and researcher of a certain theory, that has been presented with data that is counter to this theory and brings his entire career into question. A xenophobic person who wants nothing to do with “outsiders” and misses an opportunity to learn entirely different systems of culture, language, problem-solving, healthy habits and more.
Being closed-minded means being closed off to all experiences and knowledge associated with what you are unwilling to entertain or consider. All those experiences are missed out on simply because of your inability to make contact with the strange, challenging and briefly uncomfortable. This is not the same as something that is objectively dangerous or morally wrong. But deep reflection and consideration is needed in order to make the distinction between what is unhealthy and what is simply off-putting to your ego.
Extrinsic Reward
There have been countless studies that have shown that extrinsic reward, that is, an external reward for completing a task (like money for a contest or a piece of candy when you’re a good little boy or girl) has a negative effect on your cognitive abilities to solve whatever problem the reward is attached to. Setting expectations is a major factor in learning. By placing some carrot at the end of the task, we inhibit our ability to focus on the task. Dedicating energy to the thought of “winning” instead of accessing our ultra-instinct in the present moment to execute with all your cognitive power, means energy unused for the problem at hand. If you are interested in a cool artistic depiction of this, I recommend watching “The Last Samurai”, especially the scenes that capture the daily life of the village people living under the excellent leadership of the Samurai and their philosophy.
Enhancers
I hope that at this point you have started to appreciate that IQ isn’t a number, but a upward journey. It is not a closed cage but an open world where the sky is the limit. Keeping this in mind, let us examine some of the qualities that expand on this map of understanding.
Creativity & Playfulness
Several studies have shown that kids often outperform adults in constructive play and competitive problem-solving. There are many reasons for this. One, is their ability to activate their creative centers comprehensively, not limited by expectations, fears or being overly self-aware of their relationship with the environment (i.e. thinking about all the people that may be watching them while they work).
The ability to play with an idea or task is what opens up the possibilities for understanding its nature completely. You can’t truly conceive the entirety of a problem if you can only see if from one angle or perspective. This narrow bandwidth of focus often comes as a result of programming, ingrained habits, fear of breaking normative rules of behavior and protocol, etc. Being able to play means being able to break the rules and not caring what other people think about it!. A child that has not been subjected to the strict rules society forces on them doesn’t care what others think. In fact the thought hasn’t even occurred to them. They are in their own little world. A world where, at the end of the day, they are just having fun and truly experiencing the broad spectrum of what reality actually is, instead of what they are told to think of it.
Intelligence Exercise #3: Taking Apart the Machine
Think back to a time when you were a child, so fascinated with the world and how things worked. Did you ever take something apart, just so you could glimpsed into the mystery of its mechanics? Maybe it was one of your light-up electronic toys, or that back of the TV set (which probably got you into a bit of trouble).
Think of a technology or idea you have always been fascinated with. Something that you’ve always wanted to understand better. How it was inspired, and what went into its creation and all the moving parts that make it work?
Now that you’re an adult, you have the advantage of being able to put back together that which was like a pandora’s box for you as a child. Something as simple as the coffee machine or complicated as a car engine. Think of various opportunities to take things apart. Maybe you have a friend with a junk car they don’t care about in the back yard, or a coffee machine selling for $5 dollars at a neighbor’s garage sale. You aren’t doing this because you need to do it, or because there is some external reward. You are simply doing it for curiosities sake. So pick something that makes you excited or intrigued.
Similarly, you can do this with ideas, philosophies, political movements and historical events. Get to know the inspiring movements, their people, the creation of their manifestos and the motivations behind them. Is stoicism an evolution of the existentialists realization about ultimate reality? How much did Napoleon influence national figures during WW2? Does spelt really make all baked good better? All answers are just a library card or a google search away. Again, treat these deconstructions the same as physical ones. Pick something you are moved and intrigued by, as this will make it feel like play instead of work.
Courage
If you have ever read one of those studies of children problem-solving, verses adults, you will almost immediately notice several things. There is always more tension and fear in the adults. For example, imagine that the children and adults have been given the objective of building a stable structure using popsicle sticks. You will notice that adults tend to get more discouraged if the structure falls over, they are more likely to fight amongst themselves about who should lead, or what strategy they should try next. Children (if not maladjusted) will often laugh or get excited if the structure falls, and then pick up right where they left off. No need to seek a martyr to blame for the failure. They just continue on with the objective. This courage to fail, take personal and group responsibility for mistakes and try again is at the heart of learning and personal growth. The more chances you get to work on a problem, the more likely you are to learn from it and create more efficient systems of problem solving as you go.
Intelligence Exercise #4 | Purposeful Embarrassment
Think of yourself as an improv comedian or a prank artist about to pull some public performance or stunt. The only difference here, is that you are the target of the prank, and you are improvising your own embarrassment.
Imagine some common ways people get embarrassed in public, like having to let go of some gas, tripping over a flat surface, pushing instead of pulling the door, your voice coming out as a squeak or any other situation that makes your face turn red and your neck get hot.
Additionally, you can break social norms, like facing the wrong way in an elevator or having a complete conversation with yourself in public. Besides simply embarrassing yourself, you can also just make everyone else extremely uncomfortable. The effect is essentially the same.
Create a scenario in a public setting, where you do this purposely, with the goal of “embarrassing” yourself in front of a bunch of people or simple make them uncomfortable with some ridiculous behavior.
This is an example of what psychologist call “exposure therapy.” Where you expose yourself to something that you are afraid of, but in a watered down form. In this exercise you are in control of the embarrassment by manufacturing its very existence. You will most likely still feel a moderate version of the natural feelings of embarrassment, except in this way, you’re in on the joke.
This level of control allows you to build up immunity to the real thing. Let yourself surrender to and accept the various bewildered faces and chuckling laughs of the people. Feel the heat of the attention, and when you’re ready, smile and chuckle along with them.
Consider other ways you can architecture other scenarios that represent other fears. General failure, fear of spiders, fear of public speaking etc. And then be the “man behind the curtain” creating a mini meta-reality. Like a training simulation for building your character.
Openness
How can we learn without openness? If we are not open to the environment in which the problem exists, we can’t fully work with it. If we are not open to suggestions from others, how can we take advantage of the vast reservoirs of wisdom that reside in the minds of every and any human being on Earth? Everyone is a master of something. And everyone’s story is unique, outfitted with a variety of helpful anecdotes, shortcuts, life-hacks, and pre-work rituals that give them their own kind of edge to solving problems and understanding the world.
Passion
Passion may be the number one true metric of IQ and genius. Think of some of the things you are terrible at. Are most of those things also boring to you? How many stories are there about the child who failed such and such class only to grow up to be one of the world’s great visionaries in some other domain? Passion is the fuel of genius. We tend to get much better, much quicker, when we are doing something we love. So, if you struggle with a hobby or a discipline, take the time to ask yourself if it’s simply boring to you. Ask yourself if you wouldn’t have more success and joy with some other hobby, study or field of work. Find what you are passionate about, and not only will it always feel like play instead of a chore, but you will improve in your abilities and understanding of the thing at a higher rate.
Intrinsic Reward
True motivation is a source of power that is derived from within. It is doing something for the sake of itself. Art for art’s sake, knowledge with the goal of having more knowledge. Studies have repeatedly shown that human beings perform much better with a variety of problem-solving and cognitive abilities when they are not rewarded externally, but instead, are driven by the mere joy of the process and completing the goal.
Environmental Exercise #5: Tool Making
You’ve probably heard the term “Life Hacks.” But how often have you tried to create one yourself? Life hacks represent a special aspect of IQ, because they build new neural pathways and increase crystalized intelligence as your learning about and creating the hack. In addition, when they are put to good use, they free up mental energy and time by reducing the effort required to perform a task.
Creating life hacks increases your knowledge and understanding of the world, stimulates new parts of the brain, makes problem solving less strenuous and gears your brain to look for more life hack opportunities in the future. It has an exponential effect on your cognitive function and your ability to discover and create more and more as you go.
Recalling what we discussed earlier about creating cognitive tools to make your problem solving more effective and efficient, think about the variety of things in your life that could be improved with a cognitive tool.
Is there a best way to solve a particular math problem relevant to your life? Can you write a simple equation to help figure out your monthly expenses? Try practicing the math in your head before you use a calculator, and learn what functions are programmed into the calculator that make it so fast. See if you can do those same processes in your mind.
How about something as simple as how you set the table for dinner? Should you grab all the plates, set the silverware on top of the plates, and grab the cubs between the fingers of the other hand? When having a conversation with someone that’s taking to long, are there specific phrases that incorporate politeness and a sense of urgency, that allows you to leave the conversation quickly, without offending the person? Is there a best phrase to use?
Get granular with this. Pulling out a chair, taking a sip of coffee, keyboarding, your workout routine, how the cupboards are organized in the kitchen, etc. Every task in your life has a more perfect way of being completed. Everything can be hacked with a new cognitive tool.
The key to a good life hack always starts with identifying a struggle or opportunity. Where is there a problem to solve or a new goal to achieve? Shortening your workday by automating a task, fitting your workout and breakfast in before you go to work in the morning or getting the raccoons to stop going through your garbage at night are some examples.
Continually tool with every aspect of your life, from how you wash the dishes, to automated systems that make your workday more efficient while also increasing the quality of the work.
Think of these tools as little mental machines that you create, refine and “turn on” in your mind. Imagine they are like automated robots or programs that run “Sub-Tasks” and “Daily Routines” throughout your day
The Role of Nutrition & Lifestyle
I’m sure you’ve heard this a thousand times with a hundred different self help topics. I’m sure you also know, that is because it is always true. What you put into your body is largely responsible for how you feel and perform. Below is a brief explanation of the specific foods and behaviors that either help or impede your cognitive function. Following these easy steps will most certainly provide a noticeable improvement in your clarity, focus and overall cognitive abilities.
Inflammation and Pain
Pain and inflammation are associated with impaired cognitive function. Besides actual injury, one of the most common ways that people develop pain and inflammation, is through food and stress. Inflammatory and toxic food and chemicals are scientifically proven to cause pain and inflammation in the body. A body in pain affects your ability to think!
“Pain-related cognitive impairment is thought by researchers to be a possible consequence of competing limited neural resources, neuroplasticity and/or dysregulated brain neurochemistry.”
Put into English, you require mental resources to deal with pain. Whether it’s about the attention that is required to feel it and deal with it, or the mere overwhelming of the “circuits” of the brain receiving the pain signals. And the pain doesn’t have to be severe. Chronic pain and inflammation becomes dull to the senses as you get use to it being the normal state of your experience and yet, still registers a constant signal of pain to your brain. You stop feeling it so intensely, though it is still happening, and still taking up cognitive resources.
So one immediate way to increase your IQ is by cutting out toxic and inflammatory foods and chemicals in your diet. Below you will find a list of foods and chemicals that are known to have a toxic reaction in the body. Note that some of these foods don’t effect everyone the same way, so there may be some you won’t have to remove from your diet to achieve optimum health. It’s important to also understand that foods like peanuts have a natural toxin that is meant to cause animals discomfort as a defense mechanism. Like peanuts, many plants and animals have developed natural toxins. So it is not always that we are actually “allergic” to these foods. Instead, it is that some of our bodies react more violently to the toxins than others.
There is also misconceptions with food groups like dairy. Many times, our reactions to dairy is a result of no longer producing the enzymes necessary to digest it. Milk is a nutrient we need when we are in our infancy, but past that stage we have evolved to eat solid foods. So after years and years of evolution, our bodies have learned to stop producing lactase past a certain age. When people eat dairy into adulthood, it is more difficult to process. Those who aren’t “lactose intolerant” may be producing more of the enzyme and therefore, have less problems digesting. For those who can’t digest it as well, they take on the common reactions of pain, inflammation, and upset stomach. Which is the body’s natural way of reacting to incongruent nutrients that it doesn’t know what to do with.
Potential Foods and Chemicals Linked to Inflammation and Pain
Processed Meat: Bacon, sausage, bologna, and lunchmeat.
Refined Grains: White bread, pasta, white rice, and breakfast cereals.
Fried foods: French fries, donuts, and fried chicken.
Sugar & Sugary Foods: Soda, cookies, snack cakes, pies, and brownies.
Dairy: Milk, Cheese, Butter.
Excess Salt & Salty Foods.
Margarine: A trans-fat that's harmful to the body.
Alcohol: Can cause swelling in the body.
MSG: A flavor enhancer found in Asian food, soy sauce, and other foods.
Caffeine.
Foods Associated with Allergies: Peanuts, shellfish, tree nuts, strawberries, eggs, gluten, and others.
Potassium Bromate: (Found in commercial breads).
Many added chemicals for processing and preservation.
Red Meat: (Not always the case but can be difficult to digest).
Trauma
As I stated above, pain and inflammation can be brought on by stress too. The more complex, compounded and severe that stress, the more illness it can cause. Research shows that conditions such as fibromyalgia are connected to both bad nutrition and stress. This makes perfect sense when you think about the very simple fact that we tense our bodies when we are stressed. Tension strains muscles, compresses nerves and cuts off blood flow. All of which cause pain and inflammation!
So work to find better ways to reduce your stress and identify the triggers of that stress in your life. Setting attention and intention towards leading a more peaceful and relaxed life will immediately start to open your eyes to all the causes of your stress. If you’re looking for additional assistance, make sure to look over our various manuals, quick reference guides and guided meditations for a variety of stress relief techniques.
Do The Work: Dealing with your trauma is incredibly important to your overall wellbeing. Besides cognitive ability, trauma can also be detrimental to your emotional well-being and physical health. Daily tension and stress, traumatic events and even anxiety and depression can all compound inside of you body, mind and heart, creating systemic issues and limiting overall quality of life.
So make sure you are doing the work to relieve daily tension by getting in a good scream or pillow punch. Revisit unresolved trauma with empty chair exercises, confronting an imaginary person from the past about the wrong they committed against you. Take time to engage in simple breathing mediations to release tension that brings deeper psychological pains to the surface for resolution. Lastly, consider confiding in a friend, or a holistic therapist about your trauma. Sometimes, having another person in the room to be a sounding board and a pressure release can do wonders for your healing.
Brain Food
You’ve heard the phrase before, and its not just a figure of speech! There are foods that are good for your brain and have been linked to increased cognition, focus and cognitive abilities. Everything you do requires energy and nutrients; that includes thinking. Logic dictates that if you are getting the best nutrients for the brain, you are also able to do your best thinking. Below are a list of common brain foods that have been shown to increase cognitive ability by evidence-based research.
List of Foods to Increase Cognitive Ability
Mediterranean and Plant-Based Diets
Dark Fruits:
Pomegranate
Concord Grapes
Blueberries
Blackberries
Raspberries
Cherries
Foods with Antioxidants:
A Variety of Nuts (If it doesn’t cause reactions)
Olive Oil
Dark Chocolate (No added sugar)
Various Beans
Many Others
Spices:
Turmeric
Cayenne
Alkalizing Citrus:
Lime
Lemon
Omega Fatty Acids
Cod (Fish)
Walnuts
Flax Seed Oil
Chia Seeds
Mackerel (Fish)
Complete Proteins
Hemp
Chia Seeds
Fish (in general)
Poultry: Chicken, Duck, or Turkey
Eggs (If it doesn’t cause reactions)
Dairy Products: milk, yogurt, or cheese (If it doesn’t cause reactions)
Beef (If it doesn’t cause reactions)
Soy products, such as tofu, edamame & tempeh
Dark Leafy Green Vegetables
Beet Greens
Mustard Greens
Bok Choy
Arugula
Kale
Spinach
Collard Greens
Swiss Chard
List of Supplements
Complete Amino Acids (Powder or Pill)
Fish Oils
Flax Seed Oil
Omega 3 Fatty Acid (Pill or Liquid)
Chlorella and Spirulina (Cold Press Tablets)
Cell Salts
Magnesium, K2 and D3 (Taken together)
Shilajit
Prebiotics & Probiotics
Various Mushroom Tablets
Lion’s Mane
Turkey Tail
Chaga
Many others.
Atrophy
The number one enhancer of cognitive ability is mental exercise. When you don’t use the brain, and more specifically, challenge it, you will lose some of your cognitive abilities the same way you lose muscle mass if you stop working out. It’s important to do mental exercises and problem solving that provokes your brain to create new ways of thinking about the world, which in turn will activate new neural pathways. Whether its the very nature of your work, hobbies or studies that do this naturally, or your intentional practice of challenging the mind, your brain needs attention and exercise! Something as simple as doing math in your head, or reading a thought-provoking book that presents novel ideas and ways of thinking, will facilitate this process.
List of Mental Exercises to Increase and Maintain Cognitive Ability
Doing Math Problems in your Head
Memorization Techniques: Remembering a sequence in a deck of cards, reciting Pi, etc.
Dexterity Exercises
Reading Books
Simple Visualizations (using your imagination): Anything you can think of. The goal here is to make the visualization more visible. With practice, you will begin to see colors, shadows, shapes and more. After a while you may even be able to create desired images at will.
Breathing Meditations: These can modulate brainwave states and activity and alter your consciousness. This helps to access different parts of the brain, reduce stress and help absorb and integrate new information.
Gaming Out Scenarios: Thinking of how a future situation will play out by considering all possible variables and outcomes and then testing it out. Something as simple as shooting a crumpled piece of paper into the trash bin or as complicated as how some diplomatic agreement will play out on the world stage.
Western Misconceptions
The Western framework of thinking centers around individualism, materialism, Newtonian physics & Cartesian reasoning. It is where we get our sense of self existing within our environment instead of being a part of it, our tendency to want to chop things up and cut them out (like the consumption of natural resources and reactive allopathic medicine), the ideas of three dimensional space within a single dimension of time, and many other principle perspectives about reality. Often times, human beings exist within a culture or philosophical framework the way a fish exists in water. It is so pervasive and ever-present, we forget that it is a local medium of experience, and not the entirety of it. This section will show you how everything you’ve ever known is not the only way to see the world, and this way of seeing the world has a variety of limiting effects to your cognitive abilities.
The Men Who Stare at Sheep
Have you heard of the rural shepherds that can count their sheep without counting them? Illiterate people with no education in mathematics can look at their flock and immediately know if, and how many, sheep are missing (in some cases knowing which specific ones!). This is an amazing feat and surely some form of intelligence, right?
The issue is, we have no way of measuring it using the standard model of IQ. How could these shepherds exemplify their ability on a sheet of paper or a computer screen? The skill is qualitative, not quantitative. It requires explanation and demonstration. The shepherd can solve the problem of, “Are there any missing sheep?” exponentially faster than someone with a “high IQ” counting them. But it won’t gain him any favor on the test results.
This puts a glaring light on the efficacy of IQ tests. What is IQ exactly? What is it outside of the Western-Cartesian context? It is said that, by and large, people from Africa have an average IQ of about 80. We might hear this and think that they are less intelligent. But this is not true by any means. They are simply intelligent in a different way and prioritize different values. They also, as I have explained above, often have much more effective shortcuts to solve problems that we have to use complicated systems for.
The Cartesian Illusion
Much of what we understand about IQ comes from Cartesian thought. That is, Renee Descartes and his scientific philosophy that significantly effects how we see the world today. Renee’s impact on how we think might be the most influential of all thinkers throughout history. The scientific theory, materialism and even the concept of three-dimensional space can be attributed to his discoveries and subsequent theses. What most people don’t understand is that this wasn’t exactly an advancement in our understanding.
It is more akin to a filter through which we see the world. A filter, that has limiting effects on our ability to see the actual territory of reality. Intelligence quotients are based on a very narrow set of parameters. Is pattern recognition, spatial awareness and word-and-number comprehension all there is to intelligence? Certainly not. Though every standard and official IQ test will tell you it is. The Cartesian illusion has much to do with this.
The Map Versus the Territory
We live inside of games, and games within games. Christianity is a game. Cartesian thought, is a game. Stoicism, Buddhism, Capitalism and Communism. They are all games we play for ascetic and functional purposes. All ‘isms’ and disciplines are simply maps. Maps we created to help navigate the territory of the real. The territory of the real is objective reality. Objective reality has no measurements, ontologies, epistemologies, mythologies or any other modes of thinking.
All those things are psychological tools to help parse out, categorize and stabilize our conscious observer relationship with objective unnamed reality, or, the real territory. But as soon we’ve mistaken one of these man-made maps with the actual territory; as soon as one of these philosophies become our “World View”, we lose sight of the larger picture that truly is. The western world accepts a world view of Cartesian science, mathematics and philosophy.
Its systems, methods, philosophies and behaviors are all heavily influenced by that view, and render any counter-intuition null and void. When one has been tricked into this narrow spectrum of understanding, they themselves, become limited: Limited to how they see the world, limited to how they see themselves, and limited to what potential their mind has to grow. There are vast rooms within the mansion of the mind that you would never dare enter because of this. And there are many more rooms you aren’t even aware exist as a result of confusing the map with the territory.
Seeing the World Anew
Take a tree for instance. What is a tree? Let us first examine it referencing the Cartesian Model. A tree is a biological organism in the plant kingdom that exists from root to stem. The tree stops somewhere in the earth where the roots branch out and their tips touch the nutrient-dense soil. The same is true of the opposite extent of the tree where the leaves make contact with the sky. It lives by transporting nutrients from the soil into the roots, sunlight into the leaves, and water through both. It creates energy and catalyzes materials for growth via a process called “photosynthesis.”
Now let us imagine what a tree is, outside of Cartesian thought. What of the light itself? Which makes contact with the leaves? If you took a timeless snapshot of the tree, and could see the pillar of light coming from the sun being absorbed by the leaves, wouldn’t you consider the light itself, a part of the tree? Cartesian thought tells you the light is a separate entity and that the process of photosynthesis is internal once the tree has gathered the sunlight.
Though, what would a tree be without sunlight? It wouldn’t exist. And so, by extension, the tree only exists because the sun also exists. And the tree only exists exactly in its form and appearance as the result of the timing and phases of night and day, as the moon also contributes to its nature. And what of the fungi that help to distribute nutrients in the root system through vast networks of mycelium? And what of the birds? Whose chirping sounds activate the leaves in the morning, causing them to open up to receive the sunlight? A tree does not exist without all these things. When you remove the labels, and definitions, categorizations and separations between things, you realize that all of these things are the tree, and the tree is all those things. They are in fact, inseparable.
Hmm…Maybe that’s why all the wise sages say,
“All Things Are One. We Are All Connected.”
This is Not a Pipe: "The Treachery of Images” or “This is Not a Pipe” by René Magritte is a simple and yet unendingly fascinating painting which askes the viewer to consider what an object is at its fundamental. Magritte asks you to look past the function of a pipe, its pieces that make up the whole and it’s cultural and psychological implications.
As you consider the painting’s name and the suggestion it makes, your mind starts to uncouple from what you know about a pipe, and you begin focusing on the shadows, scattering of light and color in the image. As you ponder the painting longer, you realize that all those things don’t exist either. It is simply paint simulating three dimensional qualities of the idea of an object. What this teaches us, is that a thing isn’t a thing at all, but instead a construction of other fundamental qualities that only have appearances and form. That objects, without our linguistic and cultural interpretations of them, are something unnamable and transcendent beyond what we can think or say that they are.
Forget It’s an Elephant
I had a friend who used to ask me, “Have you ever looked at an elephant, and forgotten it was an elephant?” Such a brilliant thought. Can you see a thing without thinking of all the ways you’ve been taught to think about it? Can you watch the elephant’s enormous trunk like legs without thinking of what a leg is and its use for walking? Can you be in the present moment without the preoccupation of your preconceived notions?
This, my friend, is experiencing the territory of the real. A spoon is not a spoon. It is a piece of earth material formed over centuries and perfected into the most effective tool for scooping small edible objects and liquids for consumption. It is an evolving thing which transforms to fit a need within the human environment, just as an elephant evolves to fill a niche within the natural environment. And all things are tethered to each other in karmic tension to one another. Cartesian thought sees an animal chain or web, a hierarchy of predators, prey and vegetation. But one who removes the map and looks at the territory itself, see that all of those notions are superficial. And this, is the beginning of genius.
The Genius: The genius is one who exists outside of maps, and yet can enter into any of them at any time by choice. They use various modalities of thought like programs or operating systems on a computer, processing various data sets about the world in as many ways as they have modes of thinking. Newtonian Mechanics, Capitalism, Christian Morality, Buddhism, Platonism, they are all maps, and the genius, is a map collector. In any given moment, the genius can archive a program or map and once again, see the world without thinking about what it is. In this place, the genius simply experiences and feels with a different kind of intelligence; a meta-intelligence.
The Neglected Q’s
Emotional and intuitive quotients are dynamic metrics that have a unique character all their own. Think of the many philosophies, beliefs and practices of the indigenous people around the world. Some tribes start their day by recalling their dreams and telling their stories to one another. One member of the tribe, usually the spiritual leader, will then decode and decipher these dreams, sifting though the symbology and archetypal images and situations to reveal deeper meaning about the individuals current struggles or potential opportunities in life.
Where does this fit in to the standard model? It doesn’t. Not because it is irrelevant to our understanding of the world, but because the standard model is inadequate to capture the whole of the human experience, the nature of human intelligence and consciousness itself.
Many of the languages of the Native Americans are almost completely devoid of references to past and future time. Anchoring them nearly exclusively to the present moment. Imagine a world without a concept of past or future. How different a world it would be.
Understanding emotion and body language is a science in and of itself. To be able to “pick up on a vibe” for instance, and be absolute correct about how the person is feeling and knowing how to adjust yourself to create more congruency between you and them. Understanding the general relationship dynamics within a social group that allows you to “feel the tension” in a room is another good example. Knowing how to calm a person down with the subtleties of tone and volume of your voice, and physical touch and body language. All these various abilities are forms of intelligence and cognition and represent a much larger and dynamic ecosystem of the mind than the standard model can explain.
When western scientists were studying the plant medicine Ayahuasca, they were astounded by the miraculous coincidence that the indigenous people were able to find two plants out of hundreds of thousands of species, whose active ingredients, when combined create what we know as the Ayahuasca experience. When the scientists asked what made these people combine these two specific plants, they said “The plants told us.” What type of intelligence is that?
Wherever You May Go
Their is so much we don’t understand about the human mind, the real territory of reality and the incredible miracle of our consciousness interfacing with a vast external environment we call life. Many of our philosophies and ways of thinking become like chains that place our mind into a sort of self imposed prison of limited cognition. Unlearning may be just as important as learning, and is often a prerequisite to understanding new ways of seeing the world. I hope that this guidebook helped you to see the world and yourself in a new way, and reinforced the ideas of unlimited potential that you surely knew in your heart once upon a time. The sky is truly the limit and you can do anything you put your mind to. So go! Get out their and become a nose-breathing genius.
Meditation Exercises to Increase Your IQ
The Control Room Meditation
This meditation is best practiced lying down in bed as you are preparing to fall asleep, or when you are in a relaxed state with little to no distractions.
Close your eyes and begin breathing deeply using the correct breathing technique of expanding your belly, and breathing through the nose.
Check your level of comfort, making sure that your body is completely relaxed and at rest. Lying down is highly recommended so that you are not physically engaged with any muscles in the body.
Let your body sink completely into your meditation area, whether its your bed a yoga mat, or other comfortable surface. Allow whatever is under you to fully support your body
Now, as you continue to breath deeply, try feeling your conscious awareness in your body. Feel how your mind is in your hands, and your legs and in your head.
As you continue breathing deeply, start pulling your consciousness out of the extremities of your body and into the middle of your brain, where your pineal gland is.
Imagine an energetic version of yourself is condensing down into a little you and entering into the center of your brain.
It’s important to remain as still as possible. By retreating your consciousness into your pineal gland, you have consciously disengaged with the rest of the body. The body then, should not move as it has nothing to tell it to do so.
Take a few moments to fully visualize yourself inside of your pineal gland. Consider how, you are still your body, but the body has gone to full rest and you are taking some time to explore your mind with your complete attention and awareness.
Imagine looking around inside of your brain. What do you see? Is it a grand forest with roots running all along the ground representing your synapsis? Or a vast high tech gallery of shelves that store your wisdom, memories and cognitive tools with enormous high voltage cords running along the main hallway, electrifying the information and connecting it to a large central hub?
This is where you will use your imagination to visualize an environment to facilitate symbolic dialogue between your conscious and subconscious.
Choose a metaphor that feels right for you. The idea is to symbolically visualize the following principle ideas.
Your crystalized intelligence represented by knowledge, memories, ideas, hopes, dreams, goals, character traits, cognitive tools, and more.
Your neural pathways and synapsis firing seen as a transport system that represents your fluid intelligence. I recommend using a metaphor of light or electricity (hence the tree roots and electrical cords in the examples).
The connection of your crystalized intelligence to the very center of your pineal gland using those fluid intelligence connections.
The center of you pineal gland as the “Control Center” of your mind.
Walk around this environment, with the intention to slowly make your way to the control center. Walk through your forest, or high tech gallery, or whatever metaphor you have chosen to use, and think about the various things your mind has collected over the years. Watch the energy of your synapsis fire and carry communications of the enormous amount of information in your mind from one place to another, all eventually consolidating at the control center.
As you make you way toward the control center, understand that you have master access to it. Consider the ideas of intelligence and genius. Think about a major shift that could open up new opportunities to add more knowledge to the shelves and make the roots or cords even more efficient at moving and processing information. Imagine that you’re about to give your mind an upgrade.
Walk up to the control room. Whether its the mother tree, a giant control panel with switches and buttons or other suitable metaphor. Go to the interface of the control room, where you can input any request you desire.
With full intention, imagining the outcome as if it is already here, put in the request of “super-intelligence.” Switch dials, pull levers or arrange sticks and runes around the roots of the mother tree. Create a powerful symbolic gesture that represents the request.
Find the “main lever” to pull, or a golden bucket of water to pour on the tree, and get ready to finalize the request.
Return some of your awareness to your entire physical body while you simultaneously stay anchored with the inner-you consciousness inside of your pineal gland. Pull the lever or water the tree and imagine converting all the energy you have built up in your breathing and meditation and release it into your request.
Watch as the energy surges through the entire gallery or forest of the mind and enhances everything in it with the will to increase your IQ.
With practice you will get a powerful physical sensation of something like electricity that surges through your body and stimulates your brain.
Once you have completed the request and the energy has circulated fully and found its equilibrium, slowly return to your physical body and let your consciousness flow to wherever it wants to be. Don’t try to intentionally move it this time. Instead, let it run like a river back into your body naturally.
Breathing full breaths, close out the meditation and allow yourself to naturally fall asleep.
If you were doing this during waking hours, give yourself a few minutes to settle back into your body before getting up and moving around.
Unfolding Super-Consciously
This meditation is best done while lying down as you’re falling asleep.
Taking full breaths, slowly easy into a deep state of relaxation.
Let your mind clear out as you focus on the idea of expanding your awareness, cognitive function and understanding of life.
Repeat as many times as you like, the following phrase: “I am unfolding super-consciously. I am unfolding super-consciously. I am unfolding super-consciously.”
Continue repeating this phrase will full attention to it. As your recite it, imagine your mind opening up and expanding outward like a blooming flower.
Continue this cycle until you can no longer focus on reciting the phrase correctly.
Close out the meditation by simply allowing yourself to fall asleep naturally.
Repeat this meditation every night for three nights in a row.
Usually around the third day, you will start to notice significant changes in your cognition. Sometimes, the changes can be profound and overwhelming. If this is the case, take a break from doing the meditation and allow the new level of awareness and perception to integrate.
When you feel you have fully acclimated to the new level of intelligence and wish to increase it further, restart the nightly meditation routine.
Mental Transmutation
Anytime during the day or when you are laying down for bed at night, use your intention to access a higher state of awareness. Take deep breaths and engage with your five senses. Feel your connection to the inner and outer world of your whole experience.
Imagine that you are activating a powerful instinct of hyper awareness.
Continue breathing and putting total intention and attention to thinking sharper, seeing the world with new perspective, increasing energetic flow to your brain and discovering insights into what you could be doing to enhance you cognition.
Think of this as a visual and conceptual affirmation. Fundamentally, this meditation is all about the will. You are willing yourself into higher intelligence and awareness. It is as simple as that.
Add in your own creative flair to the exercise in whatever way works for you. Any visualization, repetitive mantra, breathing technique and other yogic tool is appropriate.
Close out the meditation whenever you feel satisfied, or let it run its own course until your consciousness moves on to another task that requires your full attention.
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